


seven birds singing

by Ffwydriad



Category: Critical Role (Web Series), The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Angst, F/M, Gen, Yeah it's a seven birds au, vox machina family feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:47:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22549579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ffwydriad/pseuds/Ffwydriad
Summary: I saw seven birds, the voices out of the machine -Or, Percy fucks everything up.
Relationships: Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III & Keyleth, Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III/Vex'ahlia, Vax'ildan & Vex'ahlia (Critical Role)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 100





	seven birds singing

**Author's Note:**

> hey, look, it's a seven birds au. 
> 
> Was going through old notes on my phone and found some of the scenes,and i remembered how fervently i believe Percy would be Lucretia in a seven birds au, and cranked out the rest. 
> 
> uhhh... no real campaign one spoilers, and the only balance spoilers are about what the seven birds are, but i don't think that really counts as a spoiler anymore.

The director’s office is made of a pure white stone that shines like magic. It is empty, spartan, save for a wooden desk in the center back with a chair and a portrait of the director hanging overhead. 

The director stands in the center, waiting. He looks quite like a noble, clean pressed coat and all. He is showing the first signs of age, at his edges, and his hair would certainly be deeply graying if it wasn’t already all pure white. 

“Welcome,” he says, in a formal accent. “I’ve been expecting you.”

“Have you?” Scanlan asks. “Because I didn’t realize you knew we existed, not gonna lie. I mean, I don’t know, I’m pretty cool, but-”

“No, I meant-” the director shakes his head. “Kima has informed me of what you have done. I’ve been waiting here while you were inoculated. Which took longer than I expected. By a significant amount.”

“I think he’s mad,” Grog stage whispers.

"Well, darling, we thought it might be best to at least consider our options before drinking weird jellyfish water,” Vex says. She keeps a careful, suspicious eye on the director’s face, which is stone cold, save for a flinch when she calls him darling.

“Understandable,” the director continues. “Welcome to the Bureau of Balance. I am Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo the Third.”

“Percy...Fredder..whosit?” Grog asks.

“Yeah, we aren’t gonna remember that,” Scanlan says. “Can we just call you Percy?”

“You can call me Director,” he informs them, stiffly.

“Percy it is,” Scanlan remarks, and the flash of annoyance across the Director’s face is tinged with something else. He straightens his jacket.

“First things first,” he says, “I am going to need you to hand over the Phoenix Fire Dagger, so that it can be destroyed.”

“But it’s our dagger” Grog says. 

“We’d be more than happy to hand over such a devastating artifact,” Vex says, “but we would want compensation, for all the hardship and trouble it took acquiring it.”

“You will be paid handsomely, of course,” Percy says, waving over an assistant.

“By that you mean money, right?” Scanlan asks. “Not like, you’re going to pay us by killing us or anything.”

“We are not going to kill you,” Percy stresses. “That isn’t how we operate. For your services, in this matter, a thousand gold.” The assistant presents the bag. “Now, ah, the Dagger?”

“Yeah, here you go,” Grog says, pulling it out with his hand from the bag of holding. “Do you want me to, like, hit it with my hammer a bunch? That would probably hurt it real bad.”

“No, we have a special means specifically designed to destroy the relics,” Percy explains. He opens a slot, in the left wall, and the opaque glass turns transparent, revealing a chamber. The dagger, set into the chute, is deposited in the center.

With a flick of command, they watch as energy fills the room, and the Phoenix Fire Dagger is destroyed.

"One relic down," the director says. "Five to go."

* * *

The Bureau of Balance takes some getting used to, but not much. They meet Allura, who's Kima's girlfriend, a powerful mage on the research side, and they meet Gilmore, who runs the magical items shop, and Zahra and Kash and so many other reclaimers who welcome them in with more than a bit of jealousy over the team that managed to find the first relic, to not get corrupted by it's pull. 

Scanlan adapts perfectly, into the crowd of adoring people. Grog gets along great, once he learns that they can use the testing arena for personal training. Vex-

Well, for all that she's growing close to these two losers, she's never been one for people, or cities, and giant flying moon bases definitely fall under cities. At the very least, the Director doesn't try and tell her she can't take Trinket with her. There's no way she'd join if they had a rule like _no bears on the moon_. He even gives her a magical necklace to keep Trinket in, so that it's easier for him to take the weird cannon balls down to the surface. 

They recover their second relic on a train. They recover their third relic after winning a race.

They meet their first red robe when it - _she?_ \- saves their lives, as she knocks glasses of poisoned wine (that they weren't going to drink anyway, except maybe Grog, but Grog's not _that_ dumb) from their hands. 

"There's so much I want to tell you," she says. "The director isn't what he seems," she says. "Remember that love is your greatest weapon - it will always be stronger than fear."

"What the fuck," they say, more or less in unison. 

* * *

"You guys have really been racking up a death count, there," the reaper says, sitting on the couch in Vex's dorm room. 

He's popped out of nowhere, and he's not doing the freaky skull head thing, which means he's wearing his people face. Wearing _her_ face. 

"I need a drink," she says, "if I'm going to be explaining the shit that went down to you."

"Let's get drunk then," Death says. He has an easy grin on his face, one that she knows she only wears when she's trying to get people to give her money, but it feels natural. Feels right. 

She explains the town of Refuge, and the time loop, and the relic that's left them with only one more to go. He listens, and he laughs at all the stupid shit they did, and he tells her that they aren't breaking their parole or whatever the fuck this is, about how he's grateful about how all this got sorted out. 

"We going to talk about the-" she asks. 

"If you want," he says.

"Do you -" she needs to be more drunk to handle any of this. "Do you have, like, a name or something?"

"I'm just the Raven Queen's champion," he says. "Her reaper. Death. If I had a name, or a life, or an anything, before her, I don't really remember it."

"Trust me, it's not worth remembering," she says. "Having a family. Or a life. All it does is screw you over. Fuck you up."

"Glad I'm not missing much," Death tells her. "You seem like you'd be pretty good family, though."

"Trust me," Vex says. "I'm not."

* * *

"I really need to improve security, here," Percy notes, not looking up from his desk. His personal quarters are small, mostly empty, bare of everything but his notes and what he needs to survive.

"It wouldn't help," Keyleth says. She materializes more properly in front of him. She doesn't have the red uniform cloak around her form, is nothing but air, but she still looks like Keyleth, even like this. Or then, maybe that's just how well he knows her. "You haven't been sleeping," she adds, and her voice is hard to read like this, so airy, but he can still hear the concern. 

"You're right," he says. "I didn't think you cared."

"Percy," Keyleth sighs, and the weight of it carries on the wind. "I always cared." 

"You hate me," he reminds her. "You wanted me dead."

"I was angry," Keyleth says, and she shifts into her fire elemental form, still floating. "You broke up your family and you gave up on Vax and you broke Pike, and you were off being an arrogant know-it-all and risking your life, and you wouldn't let me help!"

He doesn't flinch, even as the flames arc up around her. "You weren't going to help," Percy tells her. "You made that abundantly clear."

"Not with your plan," Keyleth says, settling back down into air. "It's a dumb plan and it's going to get us all killed. But with you, Percy. You're one of my best friends. And you need help. It's not too late to stop this. Give them back their memories. We can be a family again. We can fix this, together."

"We can't fight it," he says. "This is the only way."

"The only thing we can do is stand and fight," she says. "We've tried running. We've tried hiding. It doesn't work. All of us, together, we're kind of amazing, Percy, we're basically gods. We could do this. We could win."

"Your optimism is as charming as ever, Keyleth," Percy notes, "but I'm afraid it's also just as naive. I'm going to get Animus. I'm going to create the barrier. And I'm going to make sure that you don't stop me."

He picks up the small ball at his desk, and suddenly, Keyleth is trapped.

"Percival!" she calls out. "Don't do this!"

"It's going to be okay," Percy says. "It's just a few days, and then everything will be okay." He smiles at her, wide, and he's able to hide the uneasiness within him. "They found Vax, Kiki."

"Of course they did," she says. "I told you, we've always been kind of amazing."

"When this is over, and they - tell him I'm sorry. Tell them I'm so, so sorry, but I did what had to be done."

* * *

“Percival. Frederickstein. Von Musel. Klossowski. De Rolo. The Third,” Vex grates out, making her way across the room. Her eyes are sharp, and they’re only focused on him. “You goddamned bastard!” she screams in rage and slams Percy against the wall with all of her strength, pinning him to the wall with a hand around his neck. 

He doesn’t struggle, he goes limp in her grasp. 

“You erased my brother!” she yells. “My twin! The other half of my soul! You took away my memories! I was alone! Do you have any idea what you stole from me?”

“Vex’ahlia-” he cries out. “I’m sorry-”

“You don’t get to apologize! You don’t get anything, you arrogant prick!”

“I know,” he chokes out. 

“Look at what you’ve done to Scanlan,” she says. “Look at what you’ve done to Grog. Look at what you’ve done to Pike! How could you? How could you!” 

“I was trying to save this world,” he says, weakly. “Vex’ahlia-”

“You’re not getting shit from me,” she hisses. “We’re going to fix the colossal fuck up you’ve made, and we’re going to fight this fucker, and we’re going to save the multiverse, and then I’m going to hurt you, Percival, just as much as you’ve hurt me.”

She lets go, and he drops to the ground, not even trying to stand. He falls, half kneeling, into a coughing fit, and from the corners of his mouth, thick black smoke begins to tumble out.

“Percy,” Scanlan murmurs, “what did you do?”

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with,” Percy says, brushing the smoke away. “I’ve lost the right for you to care about me.”

“You’re damn right you have,” Vex says, and makes her way out of the room, not even looking behind her. 

* * *

"You can't seriously be telling me that the answer this whole time was the _power of love_ ," Percy says, incredulous, as they watch the creations of Vecna, of the hunger, fade away. He looks at Keyleth, grinning widely and human for the first time in - in a very long time. Looks at Scanlan and Grog, grinning and worn out from the fight. Looks at Pike, at the helm of the ship, and he doesn't, he doesn't look, at Vax, at Vex. 

"The answer is always the power of love," Keyleth tells him. "It's been a century, Percy, I thought you would've caught on, by now."

"In Percy's defense," Scanlan says, "he's always been a moron."

"You're right," Percy says. "I'm such a fucking moron."

There's smoke, at the edges of his mouth. He doesn't even cough, this time, as it tumbles out. He just - he just lets his eyes close, and his legs fall out. 

"Percy!" Pike calls out, running to his side, reaching for a diamond that hasn't been there in ten years. 

"Percy," Vex breathes out, watching him fall down dead for what was only the third time in over a hundred years. 

"Not so fast, Freddie," Vax says, and he takes a step, sideways, hand outstretched and grabbing, and he's gone in a blink.

Percy sits in the astral plane, held fast only by Vax's hand clasping into his shirt, wreathed in shadow. His eyes look forward, open, and unseeing. 

"Get out of here," Vax tells the demon, and he brushes it off without a second thought. "Hey, Perce. Long time no remember. I'll get you back to your body in a minute. But first, I think we need to have a chat."

**Author's Note:**

> i'm @malaismere on tumblr, come say hi.


End file.
